Box Office: Bridget Jones Is Tops

April 22

The romantic comedy Bridget Jones's Diary, which debuted to a record-breaking opening in Britain last week, expanded to 600 more screens and claimed the top spot at the North American box office this weekend.

Diary, which stars Renée Zellweger as an irrepressible London-dwelling "singleton," took in an estimated $10.5 million, nudging out the reigning champ, Spy Kids, which earned $10.2 million. Spy Kids is well on its way toward $100 million, having racked up $86 million in four weeks.

Third Crocodile Dundee in Fourth
Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles, the third Dundee adventure featuring Paul Hogan as the knife-wielding no-nonsense Aussie, debuted in fourth place with $8 million, approximately the same opening figure as the 1986 comedy that started it all. Crocodile Dundee 2 proved to be the series' high point, bowing with $24.5 million in 1988.

Freddy Got Flamed by Critics
The other new comedy this weekend — and we use the term "comedy" very loosely — is Freddy Got Fingered, the directorial debut from MTV madman Tom Green. Freddy, which Green also stars in and wrote, is forcing horrified critics to hit their thesauruses to fully express their outrage at having to sit through a film in which Green swings a baby by its umbilical cord.

The Detroit Free Press dismissed it as "the ego trip of a talentless showoff," The San Francisco Chronicle called it "tragically awful," The Hollywood Reporter termed it "a pathetic, unparalleled abomination," and Slate summed it up as "the most appalling comedy of the millennium after Joe Dirt."

There's still a place in the Top 10 for Joe Dirt, the David Spade comedy released only last week. It earned $5.4 million for a seventh-place ranking.

Rounding out the Top Five is the thriller Along Came a Spider, which settled in third place with $9.1 million. Its three-week cumulative total is $47.1 million.

The Top 10 films for April 20-22, 2001:
Bridget Jones's Diary, $10.5 million
Spy Kids, $10.2 million
Along Came a Spider, $9.1 million
Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles, $8 million
Freddy Got Fingered, $7.3 million
Blow, $6 million
Joe Dirt, $5.4 million
Kingdom Come , $4.7 million
Josie and the Pussycats , $3.1 million
Enemy at the Gates, $2.1 million